US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said that a white powder, found in his office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, tested positive for ricin, forcing closure of Senate office buildings and close scrutiny of congressional mail.
Links: USA, DC

2004 Feb 4

The US Senate, rattled by a ricin attack, began returning to regular business with no illnesses reported.
Links: USA, DC

2004 Feb 15

John Kerry won the DC and Nevada presidential caucuses.
Links: USA, Nevada, DC

2004 Mar 9

John Allen Muhammad (43) was sentenced to death in Manassas, Va., for his 2002 murder rampage in the Washington DC area.
Links: Virginia, DC, Sniper

2004 Mar 23

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon declared himself the Messiah during a ceremony at the Dirksen Building in Wash., DC. Over a dozen US lawmakers attended the reception.
Links: South Korea, DC

Soccer player Freddy Adu (14), became the youngest athlete in a major American professional sport in well over a century as he entered a game between his team, D.C. United, and the San Jose Earthquakes (D.C. United won, 2-1).
Links: USA, DC, Soccer

In Washington DC tens of thousands of women gathered for an abortion-rights rally as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told several hundred of them the issue is about women gaining full equality.
Links: USA, Women, DC

2004 May 29

A new WW II memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington DC.
Links: USA, DC

2004 Jun 92004 Jun 10

The body of Ronald Reagan was laid in state in the Washington DC Capitol Rotunda. Thousands viewed the flag-draped casket of the 40th president prior to his burial in California.
Links: USA, DC, ReaganR

The new $219 million Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian opened in Washington DC. It included some 800,000 artifacts collected by George Gustav Heye (1874-1957).
Links: USA, DC, AmerIndian

IMF and World Bank officials in Washington DC failed to resolve their differences over debt relief for the world's poorest countries and Iraq while expressing concern about the impact high oil prices would have on a strengthening global economy.
Links: Oil, IMF, DC

2004 Oct 15

Several thousand people opposed to gay marriage gathered on the National Mall in Washington to call for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman.
Links: Gays, DC

A gas station in Washington DC became the first in North America to have a hydrogen dispensing pump.
Links: Gas, DC

2004

A US government found that some $700 million from Equatorial Guinea was held at Washington's Riggs Bank, making the country the bank's biggest customer. Riggs was fined millions of dollars in money-laundering fines. Nothing was done against Equatorial Guinea’s Pres. Obiang. Human rights groups have accused Obiang of using the oil wealth to make his family fabulously rich while most of his countrymen live in squalor.
Links: USA, Equatorial Guinea, DC, Corp. Scandal, Banking

Pres. Bush threw out the 1st pitch at RFK Stadium as the Nationals brought baseball back to the capital. Washington, DC, had last hosted a major-league game in September, 1971.
Links: Baseball, DC, BushGW

Lloyd Cutler (87), White House counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton and adviser to presidents of both parties, died at his Washington home.
Links: USA, DC

2005 Jul 18

Paul Duke (78), former anchor of the NBC news show “Washington Week in Review,” died. He began moderating the show in 1974.
Links: TV, DC

2005 Aug 14

Cristeta Comerford was named the new White House chef, the first woman to hold the post.
Links: USA, Food, DC, BushGW

2005 Sep 19

The Secular Coalition for America, a new lobbying organization “whose purpose is to amplify the diverse and growing voice of the nontheistic community in the US,” began operations with former Nevada State Senator Lori Lipman Brown as director/lobbyist.
Links: USA, Nevada, DC, Religion

G7 finance ministers and central bankers concluded a meeting in Washington and agreed to meet again in December in London and bid farewell to Chairman Alan Greenspan. They focused their attention on lopsided global economic progress and rising oil prices.
Links: DC, G7

2005 Sep 24

The 184-nation International Monetary Fund and the World Bank opened their annual meetings in Washington DC. They were ready to act on a breakthrough deal that would forgive more than $40 billion owed by the poorest nations.
Links: IMF, World Bank, DC

2005 Sep 24

The anti-war march in Washington DC drew tens of thousands. In SF an anti-war march from Dolores park to Jefferson Square drew 20-50 thousand people.
Links: Iraq, USA, SF, DC

2005 Sep 25

In Washington DC a landmark agreement to forgive billions of dollars of debt for poor countries sailed toward final approval by finance ministers after the IMF agreed how to pay for it.
Links: IMF, DC

2005 Oct 15

Thousands gathered in DC at the National Mall for the Millions More Movement to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Links: DC, Islam

The body of Rosa Parks arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where the civil rights pioneer became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda; President Bush and congressional leaders paused to lay wreaths by her casket.
Links: USA, Black History, DC, BushGW

In Washington DC Michael Scanlon (35) was charged with conspiring with former lobbyist Jack Abramoff to bribe government officials and bilk millions of dollars from Indian tribes. In March, 2002, Ohio Rep. Robert Ney agreed to back legislative language to benefit the Tigua tribe of El Paso, Texas, a client of Abramoff and Scanlon.
Links: USA, Ohio, DC, AmerIndian, Govm’t Scandal

Former US Sen. Eugene McCarthy (b.1916), D-Minn., died at age 89 at his home in Georgetown, DC.
Links: USA, DC

2005 Dec 12

Harvard and Georgetown announced that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia is giving $20 million to each university for Islamic studies.
Links: USA, Massachusetts, Saudi Arabia, DC

2005 Dec 15

James Freed, German-born American architect, died at his home in NYC. His work included the Washington DC Holocaust Museum (1993) and the SF Main Library (1996).
Links: USA, SF, Architect, Holocaust, DC

2005 Dec 17

Jack Anderson (83), Pulitzer Prize-winning muckraking columnist, died at his home in Maryland. Washington Post columnist Drew Pearson hired Anderson in 1947 and Anderson took over his column after Pearson’s death in 1969.
Links: USA, Maryland, DC, Journalism

2006 Jan 2

Independence Air, formerly known as Atlantic Coast Airlines, said it will shut down on Jan 5. The DC based carrier only began operations Jun 16, 2004.
Links: USA, Aviation, DC

TimelinesA text-based site.

2006 Jan 8

In Washington DC David E. Rosenbaum (63), a recently retired journalist for the NY Times, died from injuries suffered in a robbery on Jan 6. Michael Hamlin (24) and Percy Jordan Jr. (42) were soon arrested and charged with felony murder. Both men were convicted of murder. In 2007 Hamlin was sentenced to 26 years in prison after he pleaded guilty and testified against his cousin.
Links: USA, Murder, DC, Journalism, Robbery

2006 Jan 30

The Smithsonian Institute selected a space on the National Mall near the Washington Monument as the site of Its National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Links: USA, Black History, DC

2006 Feb 12

A major storm slammed the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states with nearly 2 feet of windblown snow, nearing record levels as it blacked out thousands of customers and shut down air travel from Washington to Boston. A record 26.9 inches of snow fell in New York's Central Park.
Links: USA, NYC, Massachusetts, DC, WeatherUS

2006 Apr 6

US Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) apologized for an altercation in which she'd entered a Capitol building unrecognized, refused to stop when asked by a police officer and then hit him.
Links: GeorgiaUS, USA, DC

2006 Apr 28

Five member of US Congress were willingly arrested and led away from the Sudanese Embassy in plastic handcuffs after protesting the Sudanese government's alleged role in atrocities in the Darfur region.
Links: USA, Sudan, DC

Some 100,000 rallied in Washington DC, SF and other US cities to urge the Bush administration to take decisive action to stop the genocide in Darfur.
Links: USA, Sudan, DC, BushGW

2006 Apr

In Washington DC a smoking ban passed in 2005 took effect for restaurants and offices.
Links: USA, Smoking, DC

2006 May 16

Seven African-American members of the US Congress were arrested at the Embassy of Sudan, where they were protesting atrocities in that country's Darfur region.
Links: USA, Sudan, DC

2006 May 20

Federal agents searched the Capitol Hill office of Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana as part of a bribery investigation.
Links: USA, Louisiana, DC

2006 May 25

A major power outage stranded thousands of rush-hour commuters between New York and Washington, stopping trains inside sweltering tunnels and forcing many passengers to get out and walk.
Links: USA, NYC, DC

Pres. Bush in a Memorial Day message said the US must continue the war on terror in the names of those who have given their lives in the cause. He also signed into a law a bill limiting protests at military funerals.
Links: USA, DC, BushGW

2006 Jun 3

The 2006 World Philatelic Exposition ended in Washington, DC. It is held in the US every 10 years.
Links: USA, Postage, DC

A Washington DC jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff. Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the underlying conviction was thrown out by an appeals court in 2008. In Dec, 2008, Safavian was convicted of obstructing justice and lying. In Oct 2009 he was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.
Links: USA, DC, Govm’t Scandal

2006 Jun 26

More than a foot of rain inundated Washington DC, toppling a 100-year-old elm tree on the White House lawn and causing flooding that closed major government departments.
Links: USA, DC, WeatherUS

Washington DC was scheduled to begin a campaign to screen every resident (14-84) for the AIDS virus. DC was experiencing the highest rate of new AIDS cases in the US.
Links: USA, AIDS, DC

2006 Jul 9

A panda cub, later named Tai Shan, was born at the National Zoo in Washington.
Links: USA, Animal, DC

2006 Jul 9

In Washington DC Alan Senitt (27), a British volunteer for the potential presiden-tial campaign of former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, was killed in the Georgetown neighbor-hood by robbers who slashed his throat and tried to rape his female companion. Within three hours of the attack, police arrested and charged two men, and two other suspects surrendered a few hours later. On May 21, 2007, Christopher Piper and Jeffery Rice pleaded guilty to rob-bing and killing Alan, and committing other robberies in the city. They were sentenced August 24, 2007, to 37 and 52 years respectively in prison.
Links: Britain, USA, Murder, DC

2006 Aug 12

Thousands of people gathered across from the White House, even though President Bush was out of town, to condemn US and Israeli policies in the Middle East. In SF thousands of protesters decried US Mideast policy and Israel’s military actions in Lebanon and Palestine. A smaller group demonstrated on behalf of Israel.
Links: USA, Israel, SF, Lebanon, DC

2006 Sep 7

Mohammad Khatami, former president of Iran (1997-2005), spoke at Washington National Cathedral as part of a 2-week speaking tour in the US. He urged dialogue instead of threats. A group of Jewish Iranians, who say their missing relatives were kidnapped and tortured by the Iranian government, filed suit in Manhattan against Khatami. They delivered the summons to him directly the next day as he visited the US.
Links: USA, Iran, Jews, DC